'Offering' wasn't exactly how Tony would have put it. In fact, hearing the story of their continually stunted journey through Russia would completely confound Tony, and leave him wondering, briefly, how much of the exercise he had actually hallucinated, dreamed, or simply lost in a vodka haze. After all, it wouldn't be the first time. His only consolation was that it was Nick, and his point of view was irreparably skewed. It might have had something to do with the patch. Depth perception could really change your world view.
What they at least could seem to agree on, or what didn't have to be discussed, broached, or aggravated in any way to burst a delicate pipe and compromise the whole mechanism, was that they had to have a working relationship and whatever issues Nick really needed to work on for Tony to be able to stand him back in real life could be ignored for the time being. For the time being, they had a little bit of stability, because they didn't have the time to worry about how much of a opportunistic asshole Nick was. Tony really couldn't help being so completely worthless to him at home, where he spoke the language. Apologizing for that wouldn't do anyone any good.
Dmitri's misnomered 'offering', though, that kind of helped. There were a lot of reasons Iron Man couldn't fly into Krasnodar-- one being that Tony wasn't Iron Man, but that was just a detail. Mostly, they weren't supposed to be there at all, and if Iron Man was seen taking aggressive action against Russia, it would be seen as America taking aggressive action against Russia, and they obviously didn't need any more such invitations. That was what Tony told Dmitri. Dmitri's response was a long stretch of silence, the sound of his voice slowly building in his chest like it came from a long distance, then finally the hum; "Mmm, but, Stark, there is no one to say that the Crimson Dynamo should not be in Russia. This is something she is proud of."
"When you get there--" Tony had started to explain, rushing to show what little he had managed to determine about the base's function. He didn't anticipate that Dmitri had more to say. "But I cannot go. I cannot betray my country like that." "Dmitri, it's not betrayal. You'll be helping--" "But the suit, it is not well protected. After all, only a truly mad man would try to steal it, yes?"
That was just on the fringes of Tony's definition of 'offering'.
It had taken him precious time, and he would have taken more if he didn't feel the weight of what would happen if he was so selfish, to run his hands over the Crimson Dynamo's helmet, acclimating himself to the situation. It didn't terrify him like his own Iron Armory did. That was strange-- the Dynamo had tried to kill him far more times than the Iron Man had. Maybe it was a familiar enemy. Bullets and great, crushing blows to his metal shell; however many layers they wore, whatever great, new components they devised to protect them and respond twice as hard, that was a basic, instinctual battle. What Tony faced from anything he inflicted on himself was always a horror man wasn't meant to withstand.
"The control is all in Russian." "I know." "You will have to admit now, Stark, that the Dynamo is the greater accomplishment." "I doubt it." "You will see."
They stood outside of Krasnodar, two immobile bodies on the ground, and Tony realized he still hadn't shaken the homesick feeling. It dogged him before, whenever he was out of the suit, the sensation only dulled by the promise of relief when he would inevitably have to become Iron Man again. It was something he lived with now. A sick, deep melancholy, standing water at the pit of his stomach, green and foul. As for the security system, the Crimson Dynamo ripped the door from its hinges. It helped a little.